


You Go and Save Everyone (Like You Always Do)

by LadyLace



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Not A Fix-It, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Time Travel, but it's implied?, fight me, nazi does not deserve to be a proper pronoun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:35:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29650725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLace/pseuds/LadyLace
Summary: inspired by this art:https://shaliara.tumblr.com/post/173842939649Tony and Steve are married. They avoid Civil War (narrowly). When they go back in time, it's Steve and Tony who go to acquire the soul stone.
Relationships: Happy Hogan/Pepper Potts, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 47





	You Go and Save Everyone (Like You Always Do)

**Author's Note:**

> this fic was cathartic to write. the art made me cry (tbh the fic made me cry too lmao) and i actually had most of this written like right after endgame was released but have only now finished it. hah. hahaha. ngl this fic hurts. mind the tags ya'll. also, please check out the art if you haven't already.

Tony is the happiest he’s ever been on the day of his wedding. It doesn’t matter to him that it sprinkled (okay— it poured, he’ll admit it), what matters is that he got to marry the love of his life. Steve stood next to him in army formal looking extremely handsome and all Tony’s. It’s... it’s a lot more than Tony ever thought he would have. 

After all his mistakes and sins... he never thought he’d get to this point. Rhodey stood next to him and it made Tony’s heart clench and twist in his chest. A good twist. 

The Chitauri had been a turning point for the Avengers. They had fans now, and the people’s support. 

Tony had invited everyone to live at the tower. To be honest, he hadn’t exactly expected anyone to take him up on it. But Steve had. Bruce had. 

It was enough to make his heart thumping beneath the arc reactor soar. It’d been such a long, long time since he’d made any new friends. Real ones. Ones that  _ cared  _ about _him_ . It was a novel feeling. 

Natasha and Clint had eventually followed, but Tony saw less of Clint than he did of even _Thor_ who only dropped by on occasion to meet up with Jane. Tony wondered briefly about where Clint might be, but decided it wasn’t any of his business, and didn’t think too much harder on it after that. 

Tony had SI and the Maria Stark Foundation help with reconstruction efforts after the Chitauri wrecked New York. He did a lot of PR and Pepper was in charge of damage control. Never let it be said that Tony Stark didn’t clean up his own messes. 

Accountability was important to him after Afghanistan. After Obie. He never wanted to let down people so horrifically ever again. Hell, he didn’t want to let HIMSELF down. 

Tony isn’t sure when he started noticing Steve’s... advances. It may have been after Bruce and Natasha locked them in a closet and yelled at them to “Please, for God’s sake, kiss already.”

Tony had been in shock, understandably, his mouth gaping and Steve rubbing his neck with a bright red flush on his cheeks. 

Tony hadn’t been able to help himself from thinking about how much he’d really like to discover if that blush went down to Steve’s chest too. 

Spoiler: it does. 

Steve, on that fateful day in that tiny closet, had finally asked him to dinner.

Tony had voraciously agreed.

They took it slow. And steady. Tony didn’t mind. Despite his womanizer reputation, Tony tended to get a little too serious a little too quickly when he was actually dating someone. Ty was a good example of that, which is part of the reason why he didn’t really date up until he and Pepper had given it a try. And then not again until Steve.

He’d expected to get serious, but he hadn’t quite expected to fall so hard so FAST.

Tony would be lying if he said they didn’t fight or have problems, but all couples had that. Plus the makeup sex was _amazing_. Some of the best he’d ever had, actually. Though, if Tony’s being really honest, all the sex he’s had with Steve has been the best he’s ever had. He's not sure if that's a little depressing or not. 

AIM’s attack on his house while Steve was on a mission with SHIELD nearly had Steve going AWOL. Rhodey, too. 

But he was fine. 

Maybe a little more traumatized than he’d started out, but fine nonetheless. 

After he got the so-called Mandarin arrested, and took care of Killian and Maya, he told Pepper to take a long, well-deserved vacation. And maybe to take Happy with her.

Yeah, he wasn’t blind.

Then Steve came home and Tony got doted on quite a bit. He liked this whole boyfriend thing.

Then Ultron happened and Steve was so, so furious with him— Tony thought for sure this would be it for them. 

But it wasn’t. 

Steve— _Steve_ — proposed instead and it was just like being back in that closet. Tony had always thought he’d be the one to propose, but here Steve was trying to out-boyfriend him. 

Sly bastard. 

They were married a year later. 

Then SHIELD happened. Or rather, HYDRA inside  SHIELD happened. 

And then Steve had called and told him about what the Winter Soldier did.  _ Who _ the Soldier was. What Steve was planning to do. 

It was the first time Tony made Steve sleep on the couch. It was also the last because Tony had gone to get him not even a couple of hours later to cuddle with Steve on the couch. 

They’d made up. 

Enthusiastically. 

Many times.

Tony had helped Steve find Barnes to the best of his ability, but the problem was that Barnes didn’t  want  to be found. And Tony had tried to tell Steve that, but Steve was... determined.

No. 

Steve was desperate. And it broke Tony’s heart because all Tony wanted was to be enough for Steve in his new world. Wanted Steve to find new roots; new anchors to make the shock and the effects of his coma more tolerable. 

Steve eventually gave up. Reluctantly. Bitterly. It put a bit of a strain on their relationship at first, but Tony swallowed his protests; his worries, his insecurities. 

And he let it be. He gave Steve the support any good husband would and ignored his own wants. Tried to be selfless and understanding and not... the needy thing that craved attention from his partners that Ty had hated and taken advantage of in equal measures. 

But Steve wasn’t Ty. And Tony was running out of excuses for Steve not being places he should be.

It’s not so shocking, then, when Steve chooses Barnes over him. It was a sunny day when General Ross approached him with the Sokovia Accords. And Tony knew, then, that it was the beginning of the end. 

For them. For their beautiful relationship that he’d come to cherish so much. That he wasn’t sure he could live without. 

But, even though he saw his relationship falling down the toilet because of it, he told Steve about it anyways.

“What if we fail?”

“Then we’ll do that together, too.”

The end result... 

Well. Tony doesn’t call himself a futurist for nothing. It killed him inside, but Tony told himself that Steve was being obstinate and willful, and damn the consequences. That Tony was the one in the right. That Steve’s arrogance would infuriate the public.

Tony knew he was right to support it. To show the people that their superheroes always had their best interests at heart— always.

He just wished it hadn’t cost him his husband, but he’s always been the one who ends up paying the price. Always. it makes him wonder what he’d done in a past life to deserve all this shitty luck. 

Tony is still half-sick with heartbreak and anger when he finds out that the “rogue” Avengers have been taken to the Raft. Illegally. 

Finally, Tony thinks, something to get Ross a well-deserved court martial and hopefully fired. For good.

Tony isn’t expecting the acerbic remarks and insults that greet him when he visits his... former... teammates. He’d brought some company to detain Ross, and Rhodey, for backup because he'd known Ross wasn’t going to go down without a fight. 

He’s a little _too_ stunned at all the hate they’re spewing at him, so when Rhodey barges in and asks him what the hell is taking so long, he’s a little too grateful at the deafening silence in the room that follows.

Tony just shrugs, closes his face mask, and tells FRIDAY to open the cells and release Wanda’s collar. 

He walks out of the room with his head held high, but sorrow cracking through the lines of his face behind the helmet.

He’s fine, he thinks.

Steve would’ve probably come to save them like he always does eventually, anyways.

Tony doesn’t hear from his husband until that twice-damned parcel comes. Separated though they may be, Tony deserved better than one of Steve’s stupid handwritten letters. 

It’s a mimicry; a snub to the love-notes that Steve would leave lying around the tower for Tony to find. The burner flip-phone is an insult to Tony personally.

Steve should’ve known better.

In the park, on their daily walk together with Happy lingering a few paces behind them, Pepper asks him if he’s going to file for divorce. 

“If the divorce papers ever come,” he says somberly, “they won’t be from me.”

Pepper just looks grim and glances back at Happy, who gives her a small, gentle smile that tugs at Tony’s heartstrings.

It makes him miss Steve like an aching limb.

Then Strange pops through a portal and Tony doesn’t have time to grieve for the limb that isn’t there.

Tony gets the crackling call from Steve on the stupid flying donut saucer. 

“Tell me you’re not on that ship,” Steve had begged.

“I love you,” had been Tony’s response before he cut the call and focused on the evil Squidward.

Tony didn’t win with the Guardians. 

Strange gave up the stone.

He and the blue cyborg— Nebula, she’d said— the only ones left on Titan after the Dusting. He’d somehow managed to jerry-rig the damaged Guardians’ spaceship into something that could fly. For a while, anyways. 

Now they’re floating, engines dead, through space with no life-line or any way to make any kind of meaningful repairs. 

He records a message through his helmet. Hoping against hope no one ever has to see it. 

“When I drift off, I’ll think of you. It’s always you.” 

He’s vaguely aware of Nebula sitting him up in the chair, but he’s so hungry. And he’s so _tired_. He just... wants death to come if it’s gonna come. He’s sick of waiting.

That’s when the bright starburst appears in front of his eyes. But it’s not a starburst. It’s a person.

Carol offers to take them to Earth since she’s headed that way already. She’s responding to a distress call from a communicator she’d left with one Nick Fury. 

Tony would laugh if he wasn’t so damn out of it.

When Carol lands them on the field outside the Compound, Tony feels joy roll through him for the first time in what feels like ages. 

Dread follows close behind because he knows Steve will probably be there. 

Hopes he will be, at the very least.

Nebula has to help him stumble down the ramp. 

He sees Steve waiting for him at the bottom and his heart soars.

God, he loves that man. Even after everything.

Tony’s legs give out, but Steve catches him and Tony basks in the warmth of his husband. 

“You weren't there to save me,” Tony whispers, “like you always do. You said we'd fail together.”

“I'm sorry,” Steve murmurs back with tears in his eyes. "I love you."

It’s almost enough. 

Tony is still mad. But they can work it out. Together. Like they always do.

It takes months for Tony to be rehabilitated. Long agonizing months to get muscles and fat back that he’d lost in the weeks of drifting through space in a broken ship.

Tony is the one who discovers the van and realized that Scott was likely still trapped in micro-space. 

It takes a while for Tony to study Hank’s work and theories in order to safety get Scott out.

When Scott does emerge he’s... more than a lot confused.

Steve explains what had happened and then Scott comes up with an idea.

It’s a damn crazy idea, but they work something out.

Tony makes them all suits designed to help them handle the trip. 

Tony and Steve will head to Vormir and the others will go to New York after the battle. Partially because it’d be more than a lot weird to have to face past-versions of themselves, and also because Nebula had told him about Gamora. He knew… well. He kind of knew what to expect.

He shakes his head. It’s fool proof. They have a plan. Everything will be fine.

What could possibly go wrong?

Coming across the Red Skull had been _i_ _nteresting _ to say the least. 

The first thing Steve had done was haul off and punch the evil skeleton-looking nazi in his face.

Tony was tempted to do it himself, but Steve seemed to be having a _smashing_ good time. So Tony left him to it and looked around for the stone.

He only saw a strange arch almost altar-like thing and the edge of a cliff plunging down, down, down.

The soul stone is nowhere to be seen.

Tony heard maniacal laughter in the background and turns to look at Steve and the Red Skull.

The nazi is laughing and Steve’s fists are clenched. His face is more furious than Tony has ever seen it before. Including after Ultron. 

“Steve?” He calls out.

Schmidt just cackles harder.

“I may not be able to have what I desire,” the nazi says ominously, “but watching the great Captain America have to choose will be a close second.”

“Choose?” Tony echoes, “Choose what?”

Dread is already coiling in Tony’s belly.

“A soul for a soul,” Schmidt smirks. 

Oh.

Tony recoils and his face blanches of all color.

Oh no. 

He hadn’t quite expected this. Though, he thinks, he maybe should have. And suspects, deep down, he was denying this reality. 

Steve bows his head miserably. 

They argue about it some.

They sit and hold each other for a while.

They argue some more.

Tony decides for them both. For everyone.

But he’s allowed to hold Steve a little longer. He's allowed time to process this sacrifice he’s going to make for them all. He's allowed to be a little selfish after everything. So he is and does.

He sits next to Steve, their arms wrapped around each other and Tony kisses his husband gently. 

Steve kisses him back and, for a moment, they’re back on Earth. Back at their wedding instead of at the top of a mountain on an eerie, creepy planet with a nazi turned skeleton.

For a moment, Tony feels at peace. 

He tells Steve what he should have all that time ago. Spoke about his insecurities like he should’ve. Steve apologizes and they kiss heavier. More desperately. 

Like it’ll be their last. ~~It is.~~

Tony tells Steve how much he loves him and that he forgives him. 

“I’ll do it,” Tony whispers out in the open air. A finality rains down on the tension in a way that makes Steve’s features contort into rage and helplessness.

“You go and save everyone. Like you always do.”

“No,” Steve denies. His face is hard and his eyes are angry and determined.

“It has to be you.” He smiles, but it’s full of despair and timeless regret and all the things that will never be. 

Tony is facing Steve, the two pillars to his back and he catches the Skull looking on as smug as a cat that got the cream. 

Tony reaches for Steve’s hand. “We agreed,” he says quietly. 

_Whatever it takes. No matter what._

His husband jerks his hand away. “No,” Steve says adamantly.

“You...” Tony begins to say, but he doesn’t want to start another fight. Not now. He reaches for Steve— to hold him. To comfort him. 

“No!” Steve turns away. Tony can see his shoulders shaking slightly. His fists are clenched until the knuckles are bone-white and Tony can hear his teeth grinding.

“There should be another way,” Steve’s voice is low, but it cracks on the last word.

Tony knows what he’s asking of the love of his life. Knows he won’t be the only broken thing at the end of this. 

Tony’s brows furrow together in grief and sorrow for what he’s leaving behind. He pulls his husband into a hug. 

“You know there isn’t,” Tony says gently into Steve's neck.

Tony grabs Steve’s shoulders and rests his head on Steve’s back in between his shoulder blades. He holds on tight.

“You can’t tell me that,” Steve’s voice trembles and Tony hears his grief and agony. Can feel that strong back start to shake with tears.

Tony’s heart breaks in half, but he has to do this. Has to be strong. If Steve sees him cry, there’s no way his husband will let him go through with it. 

Steve reaches back and grabs Tony’s hand in his own. 

Tony closes his eyes and tries not to let his emotions consume him. 

“It’s ok,” he insists. _It’s ok._

Steve turns and Tony holds his face in between his hands. Tony wipes a tear away with a finger.

“Tony...” Steve’s despair is evident throughout his whole body.

Tony angles that gorgeous jaw to face him. To look into his husband’s eyes. One last time. Let it be the last thing he sees. 

“Look at me.”

Steve does. Tears are rolling unashamedly down his cheeks and Tony’s heart clenches and twists in his chest. It’s not a good twist this time.

Tony presses their foreheads together.

Tony closes his eyes, but he can still feel Steve’s gaze. Can feel the love and adoration. He basks in that attention and Steve’s cherishing grip.

“Focus. Breathe,” Tony murmurs soothingly.

He strokes a thumb along Steve’s jaw, where the beard he hadn’t had time to shave still sits. 

Tony’s eyes are still closed, but he feels Steve’s tears all the same. 

“Walk with me,” Tony whispers.

Tony walks backwards, his husband in his arms and a cool wind at his back. He hears rather than feels a small stone he kicks with the heel of his left foot.

He stops and steve stops with him. Tony doesn’t open his eyes, but he hears Steve’s sobs and desperately tries not to cry too. 

He has to do this.

He has to.

Steve’s hand is on his chest, so Tony takes it in his. He grips tight. 

“It will be ok,” he promises.

Steve knows it’s a lie. Steve’s tears come quicker, harsher.

Tony opens his beautiful brown eyes and looks into Steve’s blue. 

Tony bites his shaking lip and holds Steve’s shaking hands tighter. He can’t bear to look into his husband’s eyes any longer. He looks down. Focuses on Steve’s lips.

“It’s time.” Tony’s voice doesn’t waver, but it’s a near thing. Steve’s chest is heaving with anguish and his tears finally set Tony’s off. He can’t hold them back any longer. 

Steve grabs Tony‘s face ever so gently and Tony cries. He won’t let Steve push him. 

He leans back. Let’s go of Steve’s hands. Steve’s face. 

“Let me go.”

Tony smiles. Could say so many things, but he doesn’t. He can’t. There isn’t time.

Tony tumbles over.

His husband's beautiful blue eyes and handsome face are the last thing he sees. 

Steve crumbles to his knees. They crack loudly against the stone, but he can't care. Can't even feel it. Tears stream down his face and a shout of rage and soul-wrenching pain is torn from his chest as he watches his husband fall to his death.

Lost to his heartbreak, it takes Steve a long time to realize his knees and feet are wet. Longer still to open his hand to see the soul stone glistening bright orange.

Steve decides he hates the color orange.

He stares hard at the small gem.

His hand shakes and his teeth grate. A sob is lodged deep in hischest. He can’t feel his tears or his face. 

He can only see Tony at the bottom of that cliff. Broken and bloody and gone.

He leans back for the roar of pain that rips out of his throat.

_ “You go and save everyone. Like you always do.” _

Bruce wields the stones. And then the gauntlet is tossed into Carol’s hands and suddenly they’ve won. It's all over. 

The taste of victory is bittersweet on his tongue and he hates it. 

He wishes Tony were here to see this. Wishes Tony could have seen all their allies burst out of portal right when they needed them.

Wishes Tony could have seen all the news reports and YouTube videos of reunions from those long-lost to the Dusting. 

He doesn’t know if it was worth it. But it has to be. For Tony. It has to be. 

Strange tells him one night, when they’re both suffering from insomnia, what he’d told Tony back on Titan. that out of million of worlds, there was only one where they won. 

“The odds were three million to one,” Strange murmurs, “but there are billions and billions of worlds. Ours wasn’t the only world that won, but at least this one…” he trails off, and suddenly Steve has to know. 

“What?”

“—At least in this one he didn’t have to suffer through a civil war,” Strange finishes with a haunted look on his face.

“ _What?”_ he’s starting to sound like a broken record.

“The Accords,” Strange eyes him like it’s obvious.

Steve opens and then closes his mouth; speechless.

“What—?”

“Steve,” Strange says in an admonishing tone, “if you two weren’t married, how do you think the Accords would have gone?” 

Steve has no response but imagines it wouldn’t have been good. He’d disappeared to find Bucky after all, and had, for all intents and purposes, gone rogue. Without Tony to rescue the captured Avengers and Ross getting fired… 

Civil war, indeed— Steve halts that line of thinking. Doesn’t have it in him to be grateful that things were different here. Doesn’t think that it’s healed the jagged and broken parts of his soul that won’t ever be the same without Tony by his side. 

It changes little, and yet… 

“Was he happy?”

“What?” Strange asks, befuddled. 

“In that other universe where the Avengers win. Was he happy?”

Strange falls silent. “He managed to find some,” Strange says slowly, “but he could have been happier, I think. He… sacrificed a great deal more there than he did here. It… it was not an easy death.” 

Steve inhales sharply. He feels tears burn his eyes. “' _Easy'?"_ He hisses. Like _that_ could have been an _easy_ death. 

“Falls from a certain height can kill before impact,” Strange says tonelessly, “and even if he hadn’t, he would’ve died on impact almost— if not—instantaneously.” Stephen’s voice is hard and cold with a truth Steve hadn’t wanted to ever know. 

Tears streak down his face. 

“There…” Stephen’s voice has gone quiet again. “It was very, very slow. I wouldn’t wish that kind of agony on anyone and especially not on someone like Tony Stark.”

“‘Like’?”

“A hero," Strange elaborates, "a friend. A good man.” 

Steve cries harder. He finds it does brings him some amount of comfort. Comfort that he instantly feels guilty for. That his Tony didn’t die miserably and painfully.

“I miss him,” Steve sobs. 

“He saved us,” Strange smiles, his eyes shining, “like he always did.”

**Author's Note:**

> nazi does not deserve to be a proper pronoun. fight me. also. *hands tissue* don't be shyyy i love comments. even the single-worded or the ones that are just emojis.


End file.
